Reindeer Poaching- Major Problem on Kola Peninsula - Updated
A TV news report yesterday on NRK Sami Radio reported that reindeer herders from Krasnochelye, about 140 km East from Lovozero / Lujavri region on the Kola peninsula had written an open letter to the Governor of the region and the media compaining about the poaching and hunting of their reindeer which had become a serious problem, with at least 1200 reindeer reported as being illegally hunted. In the letter, herders blamed administration officials and professional thieves. Download Letter to Governor (Russian)
Download Translation into English
“Given that there for 15 years ago were 80.000 reindeer on the Kola Peninsula, nowadays less than one half of this amount exists. This number is decreasing all the time. Our enterprise is so to speak still without any protection against this catastrophe. Reindeer are even shot from sea going vessels engaged in illegal hunting, from helicopters, snow mobiles and cross-country vehicles. Groups of up to 14 foreign made snow mobiles come from the Tersky District, from Kirovsk and from Lovozero. They operate during the whole winter and spring period. They continue even with shooting reindeer in April, when female reindeer are preparing themselves to give birth to their calves. In most cases these activities are monitored by hunting inspectors who base their own private business on it. We have noticed that among these hunters are officials of the upper echelons of the local and regional arena. According to data from this year’s hunting operations these illegal hunters this year shot about 1.200 domesticated reindeer belonging to our enterprise. The economic damage done to our co-operative amounts to 5 millions of roubles.” (from letter addressed to Governor of Murmansk)
October 24th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
В Ловозере это называют пока браконьерством, да и в других регионах. Но это не правильно, так как олени домашние и фактически это вороство. Есть пример как в Ненецком округе решали этот вопрос - http://www.prokuratura-nao.ru/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=1055
December 14th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
[...] would distinguish from wild and semi domestic reindeer is left to the imagination, given an earlier reindeerblog story of the chaos that has overwhelmed reindeer husbandry in the Kola [...]